As Akram is likely to be the next captain (AGAIN), I will start with him. He is not good with fielding positions. He has lost as the captain to Kenya on 5 occassions (in ODIs only) and won only once. Because of his not being good with fielding positions, so there were little chance of Bangladesh winning a match against Test Playing Teams.

His good side is that because he is a good batsman, he can lift the side with his batting. He has shown some fighting spirit with the batting in the past. I think Bangladesh won against India A in SAARC trophy under his captancy. He virtually took us to the world cup 1999 with his bat during the Holland match in 1997 ICC trophy when nobody else could stay at the crease for long in difficult circumstances.

fwullah

March 26, 2003, 01:24 AM

Compared to Akram Khan, Bulbul is a great captain, considering that he also has good knowledge about fielding position. Under his captancy, Bangladesh team has won a match against a test playing nation.

But like Akram, he is not known to lift the side with his bat. And he is not the most perfect captain. Under him, Bangladesh lost to Kenya twice. And those losses were miserable. He also has something against Minhazul Abedin (Akram also has this). For example, Even with Nannu in the side, Bulbul did not play Nannu in the first eleven against New Zealand in world cup '99.

But the good thing about it was that he eventually learned from his mistakes and included Nannu in the side in later matches.

fwullah

March 26, 2003, 01:24 AM

Compared to Akram Khan, Bulbul is a great captain, considering that he also has good knowledge about fielding position. Under his captancy, Bangladesh team has won a match against a test playing nation.

But like Akram, he is not known to lift the side with his bat. And he is not the most perfect captain. Under him, Bangladesh lost to Kenya twice. And those losses were miserable. He also has something against Minhazul Abedin (Akram also has this). For example, Even with Nannu in the side, Bulbul did not play Nannu in the first eleven against New Zealand in world cup '99.

But the good thing about it was that he eventually learned from his mistakes and included Nannu in the side in later matches.

fwullah

March 26, 2003, 01:34 AM

Like Akram Khan, Durjoy can lift the side with either his batting or his bowling.

But like Akram, he is also short of knowledge about fielding positions. If it were not for this (with other things not going Bangladesh's way), we could have some close matches with Zimbabwe. But that did not happen.

Also, by the time Durjoy got captancy, Bangladesh started to play test cricket. And in test cricket, not anybody can captain a side. Especially not somebody who is not yet adjusted to the longer version of the game.

It will be interesting to see how Akram leads the side (if he is given captancy) in test cricket. Since even now Akram does not have a test fifty. Also since Akram, along with Durjoy is known to be one day players.

Pilot is the best captain like Bulbul to have knowledge about fielding positions. But Pilot's idea on bowling change is not as good as Bulbul. He has a fighting spirit with which he can lift a side, but that is only while fielding. Unfortunately, he has failed to encourage his team mates with his batting, no matter how successful his batting stats are. At number seven position, how much can he encourage the team in batting anyway?

fwullah

March 26, 2003, 01:45 AM

May be we can go for 2 captains at the same time like Australia? 1 captain for one day cricket and the other for test cricket?

In Australia's case, they want to stick with their policy of taking younger players in the one day format of the game and also they pick their captain probably after choosing a team? In addition, I think they want to groom a young captain before giving them the captancy job in the test arena.

But in Bangladesh's case, the reason behind is somewhat different. Because Bangladesh has started to play in test cricket and the longer game only recently, so it is not suited for some players who have always been playing one day cricket all their life and are now seem to be incapable of adjusting themselves to test match cricket.

Players like Akram Khan, Naimur Rahman, Khaled Mahmud, Mehrab Hossain are (or were) the few names among many that are or were finding it difficult to get themselves adjusted to play in test match cricket.

I think that Akram Khan will be a better One Day captain than a Test captain. (Well he is a better One Day captain - we know that already).

I also think that Bulbul could be a better Test captain than Akram Khan. But Bulbul's form is not that great, although he has a very good temperament - compared to other batsman.

And Sujon is, like Durjoy, not a regular Test Player Material.

Nasif

March 26, 2003, 02:19 AM

Akram or Bulbul will do it for me. They are more competent as a captain than Pilot. With Akram's current batting form, he might be the to choice.

shahid

March 30, 2003, 12:55 AM

Mahmud has already become our new captian. fwullah voted for him. He is the only captain to not be properly tested. wishing him good luck.

Piranha

March 30, 2003, 02:40 AM

I wish Mahmud good luck as well.

He needs all our undiluted support.

Tehsin

March 30, 2003, 03:25 AM

Thanks for the analysis. Wish I had the chance to post it on the page today (I will later)